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- James Bay Minerals (ASX:JBY) was a highly-watched lithium microcap explorer hopeful
- This lasted for as long as lithium prices stayed high
- However, the company has today started talking about REEs and uranium
- JBY shares are up 35.7 per cent, trading at 19 cents at 11:09 am AEDT
Talk about an energy transition – former lithium microcap darling James Bay Minerals (ASX:JBY) is pivoting into rare earths (REEs) and uranium.
The news comes as lithium prices have tanked over the last year and ANZ expects lithium supply to increase another 40 per cent through 2024, outpacing demand.
James Bay had been seeing its share price decline over the last six months from its former heights.
But this morning, shares were up as much as 40 per cent to 19.5 cents, issuing relief to struggling holders.
Why the 40pc jump?
In short, JBY is pivoting into rare earths and uranium.
Which two of these are driving shareholder excitement might not be easily discernible without interviewing every one, but this journalist bets its uranium.
Probably because rare earth prices aren’t really too amazing right now either, also coming down off 2022-2023 highs.
Uranium, of course, remains up 106 per cent year on year per TradingEconomics.
Where are these new targets located?
These new targets – fairly speculative at this point, mind you, inked only by a geophys survey – are located at the Joule Property, part of JBY’s overarching property portfolio.
Its new interests are located in the same James Bay region of Quebec for which the stock is named – and one of the hottest emerging lithium provinces of 2023.
That momentum might be on ice for a good while. Until 2028, in fact, if you give weight to lithium market analysis from Benchmark Minerals Intelligence (BMI).
That firm expects prices for the formerly cherished battery metal to recover only in the late 2020s.
Management comment vs shareholders’
If punctuation can be considered a psychological insight, JBY management was clearly excited on the news today.
“This is another fantastic result for the company!” JBY Executive Director Andrew Dornan said.
“While our exploration efforts will remain firmly focused on LCT pegmatites with potential for world-class lithium discoveries, the results obtained from aeromagnetic and spectromagnetic surveys cannot be ignored.
“As we have being doing for lithium, we will continue to sample and understand all relevant minerals on our properties.”
While shareholders are clearly net bullish on the stock (at least in the first hour of trade,) not every user on HotCopper was happy.
“This is hilarious! Lithium not catching investors eyes at the moment…. Quick tell the market we have uranium haha,” one user wrote.
Time will tell.
James Bay Minerals shares were up 35.7 per cent, trading at 19 cents at 11:09 am AEDT.
